Trap for crabs or lobster

ABSTRACT

A trap for crabs or lobsters has a mesh extending over a trap frame, with at least one inlet opening provided with a one-way inlet gate spaced apart pins which are pivotable between open and closed positions. Pin retainers prevent spreading of the pins apart from one another when the pins are in the closed position and an undersized crab outlet opening, dimensioned to allow undersized crab or lobsters to escape from the interior chamber, is provided at a side of the trap and at the bottom of the trap. The frame includes an top peripheral frame portion and finger grip openings at the underside of the trap frame. The one-way inlet gate has first and second sets of spaced apart pins, each set being pivotable independently of the other between open and closed positions. Also, the one-way inlet gate has pairs of pins which are pivotable between the open and closed positions, each pair being formed by parallel legs of a U-shaped length of wire, with retainers engaging the legs of each pair to prevent spreading of the legs.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority of Canadian patent application2,536,970, filed Feb. 20, 2006 and is a continuation application of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/656,978, filed Jan. 24, 2007, both ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to traps for crabs or lobsters andcomprising a mesh of rope or other material provided on a trap frame.

2. Description of the Related Art

Crab traps in use at the present time have hollow interiors within crabtrap frames, with wire meshes extending around the frame to enclose ahollow interior and with crab inlet openings in the meshes and theframes, through which crabs can crawl into the interiors of the crabframes when the crab traps are in use.

In order to prevent the crabs from leaving the interiors of the crabtraps, the crab inlet openings have been shaped as conical openingsspaced upwardly from the bottoms of the traps and tapering inwardly ofthe traps so as to make it difficult for the crabs to find their way outfrom the traps. Also, the crab inlet openings have been provided withone-way gates, which open inwardly to allow the crabs to enter. Theseone-way gates have been made of pivotably mounted pins.

However, in practice an undesirably large number of crabs, havingentered the traps, are able to escape through the crab inlet openings,thereby substantially reducing the crabbers catch. The crabs escapethrough the one-way gates by spreading apart the pins so as to enablethe crabs to squeeze between the pins.

Another problem of conventional crab traps is that they catch and retainundersized crabs, which should preferably be allowed to escape from thetraps.

Also, crab traps presently in use are difficult to lift be hand, becausethe crabbers fingers are unable to effectively penetrate the mesh so asto engage the crab trap frames.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a noveland improved trap for crabs or lobsters which at least partly mitigatesat least one of these problems.

According to the present invention, there is provided a trap comprisinga trap frame;

a mesh extending over the trap frame; at least one inlet opening; aone-way inlet gate at the opening, the one-way inlet gate comprising aplurality of spaced apart pins which are pivotable between open andclosed positions; and pin retainers preventing spreading of the pinsapart from one another when the pins are in the closed position.

The provision of the pin retainers prevents the pins from being spreadapart from one another by crabs or lobsters attempting to escape fromthe trap and thereby prevents the crabs or lobsters from being able tomove outwardly through the inlet opening.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the pin retainer isin the form of a rake-like pin retainer structure which is formed withopen ended slots for receiving the lower ends of the pins as the pinsmove to their closed positions.

Also according to the present invention, there is provided a trap,comprising a trap frame; a mesh extending over the trap frame; a firstinlet opening; a one-way inlet gate at the first inlet opening; and anundersized crab or lobster outlet opening dimensioned to allowundersized crabs or lobsters to escape from the interior chamber.

Preferably, the undersized crab or lobster outlet opening is formed atthe bottom of a side of the trap as a horizontally elongate openingbetween a bottom portion of the frame and a further portion of the frameoverlying the bottom portion.

The present invention also provides a trap, comprising a trap frame; amesh extending over the trap frame; a first inlet opening and a one-wayinlet gate at the first inlet opening, the frame including a top frameportion and the mesh providing finger grip openings at the top frameportion.

These finger openings facilitate grasping and lifting of the trap by theuser of the trap.

In order to further resist escape of trapped crabs or lobsters from theinterior of the trap, there is also provided, according to a furtheraspect of the present invention, a trap comprising a trap frame; a meshextending over the trap frame; at least one inlet opening; and a one-wayinlet gate at the opening; the one-way inlet gate comprising first andsecond sets of spaced apart pins; and each of the first and second setsbeing pivotable independently of the other between open and closedpositions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be more readily understood from the followingdescription of an embodiment thereof given, by way of example only, withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 show a view in perspective of a crab trap embodying the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 show a view corresponding to that of FIG. 1, but with a meshremoves from the crab trap to facilitate the illustration of the crabtrap;

FIG. 3 show a broken-away view, from the front and above, of parts ofthe crab trap of FIG. 1 with the mesh removed;

FIG. 4 show a view from one side and above of the parts shown in FIG. 3;and

FIG. 5 shows a view in perspective of a pair of pins forming part of thecrab trap of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF AN EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

In FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings, there is shown a crab trap,indicated generally by reference numeral 10, according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention. The crab trap 10 has a crab trapframe which is indicated generally be reference numeral 12 in FIG. 2 andwhich, as shown in FIG. 1, is almost entirely covered by a meshindicated generally by reference numeral 14. The crab trap frame 12 ismade of steel rod and the mesh 14 is made of galvanized wire or twine.The mesh 14 has been omitted from FIG. 2 to facilitate illustration ofthe crab trap frame 12.

As can be seen from FIGS. 1 and 2, the crab trap 10 is of circularshape, when viewed from above, and the crab trap frame 12 has circulartop and bottom peripheral frame portions 16 and 18, which areinterconnected by vertical frame members 20.

The crab trap 10 has three horizontally elongate rectangular crab inletopenings indicated generally by reference numerals 22, which are eachprovided with a one-way inlet gate indicated generally by referencenumeral 24. Each of the inlet gates 24 is mounted between a pair ofrectangular frames indicated generally by reference numerals 26, whichproject inwardly from the top and bottom peripheral frame portions. Thevertical frame members 20 form outer sides of the rectangular frames 26,and a circularly curved reinforcement bar 28 extends over each crabinlet opening between the vertical frame members 20. A circular bottomportion 29, which is spaced radially inwardly from the bottom peripheralframe portion 18 so as to provide at the bottom of the crab trap 12 agap 71 into which the fingers of crabber can be inserted to facilitatehandling of the crab trap 12, is connected to the bottoms of therectangular frames 26.

As shown in FIG. 4, each one way inlet gate 24 has a parallel pair ofhorizontal pivot rods 30 and 32, which are joined at opposite ends to aparallel pair of horizontal support bars 34. The horizontal support bars34 are each joined to a respective vertical bar 35 extending downwardlyfrom the top of the respective rectangular frame 26, and the bars 34 arealso connected together by a horizontal bar 36 extending between andparallel to the pivot rods 30 and 32.

The tops of the rectangular frames 26 are connected by a horizontal bar37 and the horizontal bars 35 are connected by a horizontal bar 39, thebars 37 and 39 being parallel to the bar 36.

The pivot rods 30 and 32 each pivotably support a set of pins, which areindicated generally by reference numeral 38, and which have lower ends40 which slidably engage in convergent slots 42 in a pin retainer 44 inthe form of a rake-like flange of a channel-shaped pin retainerstructure, indicated generally by reference numeral 46, which is made ofsheet metal, when the one-way inlet gates 24 are in their closedpositions, in which they are shown on FIGS. 1 to 4. The two sets of pins38 are pivotable, independently of one another, about their respectivepivot rods 30 and 32.

The crab trap frame 12 includes circularly curved frame members 48 (FIG.2), which are located above the bottom peripheral frame portion 18 andare secured at opposite ends of the further frame members 48 to thevertical frame members 20. The further frame members 48 are spacedupwardly from the bottom peripheral frame portion 18 to formtherebetween undersize crab outlet openings, indicated generally byreference numerals 51 (FIG. 1), over which the mesh 14 does not extend.These undersize crab outlet openings 51 serve to allow undersized crabswhich have entered into the interior of the crab trap 10 to escape fromthe crab trap 10.

The sets of pins 38 each comprise pairs of the pins 38, formed byparallel legs 50 (FIG. 5) of a U-shaped length of wire.

Each of the legs 50 has an upper end portion 56, and the upper endportions 56 are connected by an intermediate portion 58 extendingbetween the legs 50. When the one-way inlet gates 24 are in their closedpositions, as shown in FIGS. 2-4, the lower ends 40 of the pins 38 areslidably engaged in the slots 42 of the pin retainer 44, as mentionedabove, which prevents the lower ends 40 of the pins 38 from being spreadapart by the crabs trapped in the interior of the crab trap 10 andtrying to escape through the crab inlet openings 22.

The U-shaped wire length, as also shown in FIG. 5, is provided with apin retainer in the form of a pin retainer wire 60. This pin retainerwire 60 has opposite end portions 62 which are bent to form loops aroundthe intermediate portion 58 of the U-shaped wire length so as to retainthe pin retainer wire 60 relative to the intermediate portion 58. Also,between its opposite end portions 62, the pin retainer wire 60 hasfurther portions 64 which are bent to form loops around the legs 50 soas to counteract spreading of the top portions of the legs 50 by thecrabs.

Lengths of rod 65 are welded as retainers to the pivot rods 30 and 32and located between the pairs of pins 38 to prevent the latter fromsliding along the rods 30 and 32.

As is apparent from FIG. 1, the mesh 14 comprises a circular top portion66, which is spaced radially inwardly from the top peripheral frameportion 16, and generally cylindrically curved side portions 68extending between, but not over, the crab inlet openings 22 and securedto the further frame members 48. The circular top portion 66 and theside portions of the mesh 14, and a circular bottom portion of the mesh14 and the bottom peripheral frame portion 18, are connected together bylengths of twine 74 which span the gaps 70, 71, and 72 and extend aroundthe top and bottom peripheral frame portions 16 and 18.

To enable trapped crabs to be removed from the trap 10, the trap frame12 includes pairs of semi-circularly curved bars 76 each having oppositeends pivotally retained in a respective pair of cylindrical sleeves 78,which are welded to the top peripheral frame portion 16. By pivotationrelative to the sleeves 78, the bars 76, and portions of the mesh 14secured to the bar 76, can be pivoted upwardly from the top peripheralframe portion 16 to form a pair of openings in the top of the trap 10through which the trapped crabs can be removed from the trap 10.

When the trap 10 is in use for trapping the crabs, the bars 76 aresecured in position relative to the top peripheral frame portion 16 bylatches each in the form of a length of wire 80 (FIG. 1), of which onlyone is shown in the drawings and which at one end is bent around theframe portion 16 and extends over the bar 76, with an opposite end ofthe wire bent to engage beneath one of the horizontal bars 37.

As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, various modificationsmay be made in the above-described embodiment of the present inventionwithin the scope of the appended claims. For example, while the trapshown in the accompanying drawings and described above is a crab trap,this trap may alternatively be modified as a lobster trap.

1. A trap for crabs or lobsters, comprising: a crab trap frame coveredby a mesh with top and bottom peripheral frame portions interconnectedby vertical frame members; an at least one horizontally elongaterectangular inlet opening, each opening provided with a one-way inletgate, each inlet gate being mounted between a pair of rectangular frameswhich project inwardly from the top and bottom peripheral frameportions, with the vertical frame members forming outer sides of therectangular frames; an at least one parallel pair of horizontal pivotrods atop the one way inlet gate; and a set of pins on each of the atleast one parallel pair of horizontal pivot rod, each pivotablysupported by the at least one parallel pair of horizontal pivot rods andwhich have lower ends which slidably engage in convergent slots in a pinretainer.
 2. The trap of claim 1, wherein the pin retainer is arake-like flange with a channel-shaped pin retainer structure.
 3. Thetrap of claim 1, wherein the at least one pair of horizontal pivot rodsare joined at opposite ends to a parallel pair of horizontal supportbars.
 4. The trap of claim 3, wherein the horizontal support bars arejoined to a respective vertical bar extending downwardly from the top ofthe respective rectangular frame and the support bars are also connectedtogether by a horizontal bar extending between and parallel to the atleast one pair of horizontal pivot rods.
 4. The trap of claim 1, furthercomprising a circularly curved reinforcement bar that extends over eachof the at least on inlet openings between the vertical frame members anda circular bottom portion that is spaced radially inwardly from thebottom peripheral frame portion, so as to provide at the bottom of thetrap a gap to facilitate handling of the crab trap which is connected tothe bottoms of the rectangular frames.
 5. The trap of claim 1, whereinthe sets of pins are pivotable, independently of one another, about therespective at least one pair of horizontal pivot rods.
 6. The trap ofclaim 1, wherein the crab trap frame further compromises circularlycurved frame members which are located above the bottom peripheral frameportion and are secured at opposite ends of further frame members to thevertical frame members.
 7. The trap of claim 6, wherein the furtherframe members are spaced upwardly from the bottom peripheral frameportion to form therebetween undersize crab outlet opening over whichthe mesh does not extend.